Mount Fuji stamp collage - Fujisan - Deliberations and alterations .. finishing a picture

Funny how some pictures come together immediately and very spontaneously and others take an age to complete.  This has been the case with my picture of Mount Fuji, or Fujisan, in Japan.

One View of Mount Fuji - stamp collage by Rachel Markwick

Looking back at a couple of previous mentions of this stamp collage, I  find that I first had the idea in March 2014, when it was suggested to me that it might be a good subject.  I spent a lot of time researching and reading about this beautiful mountain,  which is much venerated in Japan, and admired by tourists from all over the world. It has always been so,  and the Japanese artist Hokusai produced a series of wood block prints called Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, also completing more than a hundred.  Artists have depicted it in many ways, from simple line drawings to colourful and intricate works of art. It features in paintings and prints, on porcelain, lacquer work, furniture, textiles .. the list is endless.  As for stamp  collages .. well I haven't found any others apart from the one I've just now finally finished, although I thought I had finished it a few months ago.  On re-examining it, I wasn't happy with a few aspects and have altered it accordingly. It's always tempting and often useful to ask opinions  it can also confuse matters. At the end of the day, I have to go with how I feel about it. The majority of the stamps I have used are Japanese but there are a handful from other countries and I've used some of my clippings to make the snow capped peak!
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